Introduction

Welcome to Virtual Dimension: a free, fast, and feature-full virtual desktop manager
for Windows platform. The main goal of this open-source project is indeed to enhance
the Microsoft "Window Manager" up to the level of usual Unix Window Manager,
by providing virtual desktops, as well as some additional features, like always on
top, window shading...

I guess those already used to working with any flavor of Unix and X11 have already
understood the interest of such a project. In my opinion, anybody who used it for more
than a couple of minutes may find it hard to revert to a single desktop. However,
some people, most probably Windows users, may not understand what this is.

So, first of all, what is a virtual desktop? Simply said, a "desktop" is what you see
when you run windows: the actual windows desktop, with the icons on it; some open
windows; some minimized windows. The main goal of the project is thus to allow working
with only some of the applications visible at a time. Later, some other windows may
be visible. The program thus allows to have a few set of applications/windows, where
you can simply choose which group is visible, and switch between one group or the
other.

Now, one may ask what is the interest of such a thing ? Well, this is quite simple.
If you only have a few windows open at any time, I guess there isn't much interest.
However, if you are working with lots of applications, you desktop can easily become
overcrowded: you lose time finding your windows, taskbar buttons are too small for
you to read the text and find the right window, using drag and drop becomes a
nightmare... The solution is Virtual Dimension.

Indeed, using Virtual Dimension, you could have all your chat and irc windows on one
virtual desktop; your email client and browser windows on another; and your text
editor and debugger on a third one. This way, you only have what you need before you,
yet you can easily switch to another desktop when you need to access the other
applications...

Ability to move a window from one desktop to the other, and to have a
window be present on all desktops

Customizable shortcuts to use the application efficiently

Feeling lost with all your desktops ? Virtual Dimension has powerful features to help you:

Assign a meaningful name to each desktop, and select a different wallpaper for each
desktop. Virtual Dimension supports BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF and EMF images, on all platforms,
and with no speed loss (as opposed to Active Desktop)

Each desktop can be assigned a global hotkey. Switching to this specific desktop is now
as simple a pushing a few keys

You can activate the next/previous desktop using customizable hotkeys

Optionally, you can have an OSD (On Screen Display) window appear whenever you switch
desktop, displaying the name of the activated desktop. The OSD appearance can be fully
configured.

At your choice, ALT+TAB can present the list of all windows, or only the windows that are
present on the current desktop

It is also possible to configure the application so that moving the mouse to the edge of
the screen automatically switches to the neighbooring desktop

The preview window is a powerful tool which allows you to get the most out of
Virtual Dimension:

Preview window displays the list of windows on each desktop

Context menu allows to access special features for each window or desktop

You can use drag and drop to simply move a window from one desktop to the other

Switching desktop is as easy as a single mouse click

Appearance can be customized with custom colors or background image

Optionally transparent preview window (Windows 2000/XP only)

The window docks itself to the screen borders, and be hide itself automatically after some
time, in order to take as little space as possible ! (note that it can hide only if docked)

Additionally, Virtual Dimension allows you to access special features:

You can make any window be "always on top"

All windows can be made partially translucent

You now have the possibility to minimize any window to the tray

You can maximize the width or height of a window, with a single click or customizable
keystroke

To work even faster, you can move a window to another desktop with only a keystroke of your
choice

Virtual Dimension also allows you to easily kill any window

In order to access all those features in a more convenient fashion, and thus work faster,
Virtual Dimension can optionally integrate with the shell. This allows to access many operations
with a single click, as if they were supported directly by Windows !

The system menu gets a new "Virtual Dimension" submenu, allowing to switch desktop, make
a window transparent or always on top...

If a window is setup to be minimized to tray, clicking on the minimize button will put it
to the tray. You do not need to go through Virtual Dimension for this to happen !

Shift+Maximize (using the button or menu item) will maximize the width of the window

Ctrl+Maximize (using the button or menu item) will maximize the height of the window

Shift+Close (using the button or menu item) will kill the window

Virtual Dimension allows you to change many settings on your applications. Maybe you like
this transparent shell. Or you want your email client to be always visible, whatever desktop
you are on. To make your life easier, Virtual Dimension allows you to:

Save the settings you use for each kind of window

Automatically restore saved settings when the window appears, or when Virtual Dimension
starts

Optionally, save/restore the size/position of your windows

Optionally, automatically save the settings as you use them (though this feature does
not always work very well...)

Requirements

The aim is to have the program be as portable and compatible as possible. However, some
functionalities may not be available on all platform. Provided you got a decently recent
version of Internet Explorer, it should work just fine.

The application is expected to run on Windows 98/Me as well as NT/2000/XP. It may also
work just fine on Windows 95. Note however that transparency is only supported on Windows
2000/XP

If you test the application, please let me know if it does not work on your platform,
including a somewhat detailed description of what happens.